O2 maps UK homes' gadget habits

Don’t feel guilty if a large chunk of your cash goes on gadgets. O2 has discovered that 40 per cent of UK families now spend at least £3000 - ten per cent of the average household income - on electronics each year.

The network provider recently spoke to 500 families and found that the average UK home now boasts 2.4 TVs, 1.6 computers and 2.4 games consoles.

Each UK home should also contain roughly three mobile phones and 2.2 MP3 players.

As a result of the report – which questioned families on their views towards technology, such as how it affects their work-life balance – O2 concluded that a family’s gadget buying habits should fall into one of four categories: Leaders, Resistors, Followers and Drifters.

Leaders are excited by technology, find it easy to use and use it extensively. Resistors, on the other hand, are more hesitant about technology, despite having lots of mobile phones, games consoles and TVs in the house.

Followers are excited by technology but take a pragmatic approach to the gadgets they buy by analysing the role, say, a PlayStation 3 will have in their home. Drifters just buy gadgets based on what their kids want – lucky them.

The report also arrived at several other interesting conclusions. For example, only six per cent thought BlackBerrys and other email devices make it harder to strike the right balance between work and home life. While 79 per cent said mobile phones make it easier to organise families. ®